Although Gaga tries hard to break new ground and define ArtPop as her own, self-invented genre, it’s still difficult to distinguish parts of her act from an 80’s Madonna on crack. In recent months she’s been spotted with less make up, less costume and less fuss. This album is testament to that as she wants us to get to know the ‘real’ Lady Gaga. ArtPop‘s opening song ‘Aura’ asks if you “want to see the girl behind the aura / Behind the curtain, behind the burka?”. This begs us to ask what statement she was making by wearing a burka in the first place, and whilst she tries to explains it away (for fashion, of course), the statement and album opener remain mixed, slightly abstract messages.
This confusion remains a constant theme through the rest of the album. ‘Jewels N’ Drugs’ is a collaboration with Twista which sees him rap with her chorus: “Don’t want your jewels ./ I want your drugs”.It’s a soulless rap song that possesses no rhythm or blues. ‘MANiCURE’ is quite bold and tells us we all want to be manicured, but the album’s title track is a nothing song with a robotic voice.
It’s an experimental album attempting to showcase her finger in every music genre pie. ‘Swine’ has dabble in dubstep, ‘Fashion!’ is Madonna rehashed and ‘Dope’ is the obligatory ballad. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. There’s not one song on there that’s half as annoyingly catchy like her previous singles. The whole album is synth pop at its worst; it’s surprising Pitbull doesn’t make an appearance.
When she sings about manicures, jewels, sex, drugs and Dontella Versace (who she completely slates), it’s hard not to laugh when she believes herself to be such a deep person; she’s a walking contradiction. ‘G.U.Y’ isn’t her dissing a guy, no it stands for Girl Under You; the face of feminism this Lady is not. If the record is meant for us to understand the ‘real’ her, then she’s a superficial narcissist. So do I want to see the girl behind the aura? No thank you, you can keep that burka on love.
3/10 for an underwhelming mess.
Artpop was released on November 6th on Interscope Records.
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- Album Review: Lady Gaga “ArtPop” (theopnation.com)
- Lady Gaga wears a hover dress, performs ‘ARTPOP’ songs at Brooklyn artRAVE (music-mix.ew.com)